The Conservation Effects Assessment Project was established to quantify water quality benefits of conservation practices supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In 2004, watershed assessment studies were begun in fourteen agricultural watersheds with varying cropping systems, landscapes, climate, and water quality concerns. This paper reviews USDA Agricultural Research Service '...

Gaining a greater understanding of the plant microbiota and its interactions with its host plant heralds a new era of scientific discovery in agriculture. Different agricultural management practices influence soil microbial populations by changing a soil's physical, chemical and biological properties. However, the impact of these practices on the microbiota associated with economically importan...

Abstract The European Green Deal puts a healthy environment at the core of policy‐making initiatives in Union (EU). Soil, due to its nature, is central actor be considered when developing and implementing actions many areas, from biodiversity agriculture climate pollution. New means for monitoring impact decisions taken these sectors are needed. Land Use Coverage Area frame Survey (LUCAS module...

Soil erosion continues to be a threat to agricultural productivity worldwide, with soil losses in the United States exceeding 3 billion tons annually. Wind and water erosion have caused dramatic declines in soil productivity. Erosion protection and associated conservation of nutrients, organic matter, soil water holding capacity and biota are significant concerns. Pimentel et al. (1995) estimat...

There is high-level political support for the use of green infrastructure (GI) across Europe, to maintain viable populations and to provide ecosystem services (ES). Even though GI is inherently a spatial concept, the modern tools for spatial planning have not been recognized, such as in the recent European Environment Agency (EEA) report. We outline a toolbox of methods useful for GI design tha...

Forest disturbance causes specialization of plant-frugivore networks and jeopardizes mutualistic interactions through reduction of ecological redundancy. To evaluate how simplification of a forest into an agroecosystem affects plant-disperser mutualistic interactions, we compared bat-fruit interaction indexes of specialization in tropical montane cloud forest fragments (TMCF) and shaded-coffee ...

We illustrate a strategy for valuation of forest ecosystem services by studying the demand for its weak complement, agricultural labor –a commodity that has market prices. In our case study forest protection in Ruteng Park of Flores, Indonesia, provides soil conservation benefits to farmers living near the protected area. Econometric analyses of forest hydrology and household data shows that so...